I climbed Duffy Mountain alone from the west I walked all the way to the east end of the mountain before returning the same way. There were a few hunters about, so I wore orange. I did see one deer and a few rabbits.

Before I climbed the peak, I hiked the fairly new geology trail, but it's already fading away due to lack of use.

April 12 2014

Kim, Kessler, Shaylee and I went for a climb of Duffy Mountain. It was really windy, and it sprinkled rain a little bit, but it was still a good day for a hike. After following the ridge crest for several miles and enjoying the views, we headed back down.

February 11 2012:

I climbed Duffy Mountain today via the Northwest Ridge. Usually this is a good snowshoe or ski in February, but it has been extremely dry and warm this winter so it was more of a mud fest than a real snowshoe, though there was a fair amount of snow in sections along the crest.

After following the crest for a long distance, I returned back to the trailhead. It was even muddier going down since the ground had thawed and there was some fresh (from the day before) snow covered some icy sections, so I took two tumbles on the way down.

January 29 2011:

Kimberly went out for a girl’s day out, so the kids and I (Shaylee and Kessler) decided to climb Duffy Mountain. I had some work to do in the morning, so we got a late start.

We tried to drive to the Duffy Tunnel, but we found out that the road had not been plowed at all. The west side of the mountain near the Duffy Tunnel is gentler, but we would try and climb the much steeper south face instead because of the road conditions.

We stopped along the road where we thought we spotted a reasonable way to climb through the cliffs. It was a beautiful and bright January day, but in some ways the warm weather was a hindrance as well as a blessing. The snow was wet and mushy in the sunshine and there were sections bare of snow on the south face of the mountain. Any bare spot was very muddy. Parts of the south face of the mountain were too steep with sparse snow cover to use snowshoes.

We found an elk trail broken to the base of the steep part of the mountain and we saw dozens of elk and deer as well. Other than the wet snow and mud in several places, we made quick progress up the face of the mountain and to the cliff bands. We climbed the cliff bands on some easy ledges and above that it was a wet scramble to the summit ridge.

Once on the summit we didn’t spend much time because I missed my wife and the kids missed their mom. She should be coming home soon, so we climbed quickly down the mountain to go meet her at home. There were a few spills in the wet snow, but other than that everything went smoothly. Upon arriving home we all got hugs and kisses from Kim.

November 13 2010:

Kessler and I decided to climb Duffy Mountain today. It was a windy, cold, cloudy and gloomy day, but we needed to get out. We wore hunter orange just in case hunters were about since it’s still that season.

After driving to near the Bone Trail trailhead over frozen mud, we set off towards the mountain. Kessler suggested that we try and find a more direct route over the big cliff bands. It didn’t look too promising, but I told him we could try anyway.

We climbed the very steep talus slopes towards the cliff bands and our route looked like it would dead end into the face of a wall. When we got closer to the wall we noticed that part of it was less than vertical and perhaps offered a slight chance of having a route through the cliffs.

When we got to the base of the cliff face, we noticed that we could climb the lower 1/3 of it by using several ledge systems. The middle 1/3 was 4th class and fairly easy, but the upper 1/3 was quite challenging and a bit scary. We had to traverse some narrow ledges to a crack system which lead to the top of the cliff band.

The second cliff band was easy and we quickly made our way to the summit area. It was quite windy and cold on top, but we didn’t want to descend the same route so we headed west and towards Signal Butte where we knew an old 4wd track descends the mountain.

I had forgotten how far it was over to Signal Butte, so we decided to try and find a short cut route along the way. Finding a route down through the big cliff bands is harder from the top because you can’t see if a route goes or not. We actually tried several dead end routes while we walked the long crest of the ridge. After reaching the cliff bands almost at the point above the Yampa River, I finally found a route down that was reasonable. Once we passed a few scary ledges and one down climb, we were home free and it was just steep mud and talus, but we still had a long road walk back to the vehicle.

January 10 2009:

Kessler and I made a mid-winter ascent of Signal Butte. We had planned to take Shaylee (Kessler’s little sister) as well, but it was -4F (-20C) when we left in the morning so we decided she should stay home this time.

We actually had to walk quite a ways to the base of the mountain because we could not drive all the way there in the deep snow. We broke trail up the mountain following some deer trails, but we ditched our snowshoes too soon (we left them behind because we would be rock scrambling part of the time). Not long after we ditched them we ran into some deep snow and had some deep postholing.

We ate lunch in a little dry alcove in the rocks and then found a route through the rock slabs. We had to be very careful because some the rock slabs were coated in ice. We made it to the summit on a beautiful day. It was slightly breezy and quite cold, but we enjoyed the view before returning to the trailhead right at sunset.

April 26 2008:

I climbed Signal Butte and Duffy Mountain with Kessler and his kindergarten friend Kayden Herring. We parked right at the Yampa River before climbing Signal Butte and then climbed Duffy Mountain as well.

February 23 2008:

In winter, it was a longer than expected hike on snowshoes across the flats to reach the mountain. Pretty easy, but I sank in the sugar snow in places. I climbed the peak and traversed a long way west along the crest to get various views since the weather had improved and there was blue sky peeking through the clouds. I looped back north to view the Yampa River and completed a loop down the east side of the mountain. Deep snow was a bit tedious in the trees on the east side, but for most of the trip, there were good snow conditions.

October 20 2007:

Climbed the peak with my two children, Kessler and Shaylee on a very windy day. It was very windy but not cold. We sawa huge rattlesnake on our descent. Only hours after we were down the mountain a big snowstorm hit, dropping 13" at our house.

May 2006:

Climbed the peak with my wife Kimberly, Kessler, and Shaylee via the Bone Trail. Shaylee was carried much of the way.

November 24 2005:

Alone, I explored around Duffy Mountain and found the Bone Trail. Climbed the peak on a beautiful and warm day (for this time of year) with sunny skies and no snow. Great weather.